DEADWOOD, S.D. (Feb. 1, 2013) - Looking like NASCAR's famous "Paper Clip" track at Martinsville, the short, quick and highly technical AMSOIL Championship Snocross track at South Dakota's Days of '76 Rodeo Grounds would prove to be a formidable testing ground for the world's top snocross racers and their North American-made machines. And when the incredible roost and snow dust finally settled the best on Friday night at Deadwood it would be Tucker Hibbert (Monster Energy/Arctic Cat/Ram) winning his fifth-straight main event in the Pro Open class while Polaris' Jake Scott (Mystik Lubricants/Loctite/Polaris) took top honors in the Pro Lites class.

Pro Open

Blasting out of the start gate in Friday's Pro Open main at Deadwood was rookie class racer Kody Kamm (Monster Energy/Polaris). In pulling the Stud Boy Holeshot Kamm would take advantage of a Hibbert and Ross Martin (DuPont/Jack Links/Polaris) coming together ever so slightly down the front stretch as Kamm gained his holeshot from the outside lane.

When Kamm charge off into the early race lead, Hibbert began a cat & mouse pursuit, covering all of Kamm's lines and sticking close to the rookie Pro Open racer. But in doing so Hibbert was getting absolutely drilled with roost from Kamm's sled, which on two occasions set Hibbert back as far as 1.5 seconds behind Kamm.

Leading through lap eight Kamm eventually allowed Hibbert to get too close and the multi-time champ took full advantage of the slight opening left by Kamm, making a clean pass in turn two and railing his Arctic Cat sled out into the lead.

"It was definitely a wild race, about the gnarliest race I've done my entire life," said Hibbert. "Just a steady stream of roost. But I was able to get by Kody, got out front and that made it a little bit easier. But man, was that a wild race out there."

Behind the two Monster Energy-backed racers Martin would set his site on Kamm as well. Closing in, Martin would receive a free pass when Kamm landed on a wiped out sled on the backside of the AMSOIL Table Top jump, all but ending his night (11th). During this time defending Pro Open champ Tim Tremblay (AMSOIL/Scheuring Speed Sports/Ski-Doo) was also running fast through all the roost, moving up from the back of the pack into 3rd place.

"It was super tough. Came up on lappers super quick," said Martin. "But they're out there racing too, and don't know we're coming."

Added Tremblay: "I had a bad start, 8th or 9th, worked my way up to 3rd and I'm pretty happy with that. Tomorrow we're looking for better qualifiers, get a better pick for the start and hopefully the holeshot."

Qualifying No. 1 the AMSOIL Snocross Championship point leader, David Joanis (Ski-Doo), got the primo gate pick and was set to pull the holeshot when he hopped the start light and was relegated to the back (3rd) row. No. 2 qualifier Scott took full advantage of Joanis' mistake and pulled the holeshot, leading the 16-lap race from start to finish for the victory.

"Some guys around me jumped the start and I was alone in the holeshot," said Scott, who's now tied with Joanis in the overall Pro Lites points chase at 251-251. "And when you rip a holeshot it's easy to stay smooth and consistent. So I just had a fun race out there."

Ski-Doo racer Kevin Wallenstein had Scott in site from 2nd place for much of the race, but appeared to get clipped in the head on the backside of a jump by another sled and fell back out of podium position. Polaris' Andrew Lieders had been running in 3rd and he was able to move up to 2nd, then soon after all heck broke loose when a charging Joanis tangled with Travis Muller (Ski-Doo), allowing Renaud Alexandre (BOSS Racing/Jimmy John's/Ski-Doo) to rip up through the field and into the third and final Pro Lite podium spot on Friday at Deadwood.

"I had a pretty good start, tangled up in the first turn. Got roost from everywhere and I was just trying to survive," said Alexandre. "(I) took advantage of a mistake and got up here, so I'll take it."

Added 2nd place Lieders, who also jumped the start with Joanis: "It was pretty brutal out there, hard to pass. I got a little happy on the trigger at the start, guy next to me jumped and I did too. Had to go to the back row, so 2nd's pretty good."